Alister E. McGrath in his book, “Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers & Skeptics Find Faith” wrote, “Reality is emblazoned with signs pointing to the greater reality of God. We need to connect the dots and see the overall picture.” It wasn’t that long ago when cosmologists discovered that our universe required very specific settings in …

Christians today are facing more challenges than ever. The Poached Egg exists to equip Christians to meet those challenges and be more confident in their faith and become more effective witnesses for Christ. If you find these articles and posts useful, please consider partnering with me in 2018 to continue this work that God has laid on my heart. As someone once said, the Gospel is free, but someone has to pay for the plumbing. You can become a monthly partner for just as little as $5 a month (that’s only $60 a year), the price of a gourmet cup of coffee. Special one time gifts are welcome and encouraged as well. Will you help?

Christians today are facing more challenges than ever. The Poached Egg exists to equip Christians to meet those challenges and be more confident in their faith and become more effective witnesses for Christ. If you find these articles and posts useful, please consider partnering with me in 2018 to continue this work that God has laid on my heart. As someone once said, the Gospel is free, but someone has to pay for the plumbing. You can become a monthly partner for just as little as $5 a month (that’s only $60 a year), the price of a gourmet cup of coffee. Special one time gifts are welcome and encouraged as well. Will you help?

When it comes to the truth of the Bible, our world has found plenty of reasons to reject it. We are bombarded with a dizzying variety of objections. So much so, that the average believer is quickly overwhelmed.

Hart characterizes Wright’s review as a “catalogue of complaints,” and thinks that Wright’s own work “suffers from a dangerous combination of the conventional and the idiosyncratic, with a few significant historical misconceptions mixed in … imposing meanings on the text that best conform to his own convictions, plausible or not.” Hart concludes one particular point about how to translate a noun in Greek that lacks an article by saying, “Here I am right and Wright is wrong,” but it would not be a stretch to say that this statement characterizes much of Hart’s response.

“When I hear someone demand an ancient non-Christian authority, I immediately recognize the objection for what it is: a complaint about the historical reliability of the Gospels. Some skeptics think you can’t trust the New Testament because it was written by people who were friends of Jesus. They assume those who were close to Jesus would lie about (or exaggerate) the details of his life and ministry. But the Gospel accounts have to be assessed based on their own historical merit, and we have to remember the nature of their authors. Let me give you an example from a case I worked many years ago.

Oh my. I recently cited a paper on the evolution of embryonic development and how the evidence contradicts evolutionary theory and common descent. Even the evolutionists, though in understated terms, admitted there were problems. Evolutionary analyses are “reaching their limits,” it is difficult to “conclude anything about evolutionary origins,” genetic similarities “do not necessarily imply common ancestry,” and “conserved regulatory networks can become unrecognizably divergent.”

Participate in the Evangelical Philosophical Society's Far West Region's Call for Papers: http://bit.ly/2n73XV2 Deadline: 2/15/18. Conference: 4/13 in Phoenix. Become a member of EPS by joining for as low as $25/year [includes Journal]: http://bit.ly/2n6GIdW #philosophy pic.twitter.com/X0yDbPM7YM

Listen to @Becca_FolkesUK on #PremierDrive now bravely sharing her story of surviving child molestation. Her new single #12Rounds is her survival anthem & says we're not defined by our bad experiences https://open.spotify.com/album/1SBI26dqoEALLA3a24uzw3 … … …

In 2007, I spoke at the University of Houston, Clear Lake, on the topic of “Can Truth Be Known About God?” Some of the main points included that we have a responsibility to find what is true, that it is not intolerant to say you think you have truth, and that there is truth to be known. At the end of my talk, several students asked me questions, including one gentleman who sat down with me for nearly half an hour. He was a follower of Eckhart Tolle, the main religious instructor in Oprah Winfrey’s life at that time. His main question was how I could claim to know truth at all through my thinking abilities. He said that I couldn’t know the truth about God until I got beyond my thinking abilities to the point where I experienced God as feeling; not as believing.

Thousands of proteins in dog spit! This is an order of magnitude more protein types than previous research estimated. Would you have expected so much complex specified information in a clear, sticky, unappetizing liquid? If we estimate an average of 250 amino acids per protein or peptide, three bases per amino acid codon, and four bits per DNA letter, that amounts to 7.5 megabits of CSI in dog spit! A friendly lick from your pet paints your face with intelligent design.

I cannot thank you enough for this blog. My son, who is wayward in faith, is a sophomore at college. He seemingly left the faith as soon as he concluded his senior year of high school. I want to say that I don’t blame him; it was we, the parents, who did not set forth the Spiritual platform from which he would be able to draw on an enlightened and hopefull commitment to the Faith. We bare much blame, and are saddened by his refusal to even attend church.

We are afraid about how we might look or what might happen to us . Will we experience something awkward or embarrassing? Will we become uncomfortable? Will we experience some pain? Most of our fear of evangelism is centered on our own desire to be comfortable, and there’s nothing more uncomfortable than being embarrassed or humiliated by our peers. For most of us, it’s bad enough that we might look foolish to strangers, but there’s also the very real possibility that we’ll look foolish to our peers!

Overall, about half (45%) of churchgoers say their church has had no involvement with or conversation about foster care and adoption. Leaders at smaller congregations are less likely to encourage families to consider adoption (8%) or foster care (8%), to raise funds for adoptive families (5%), or to provide training for foster parents (2%).

As Verse 10 asks, when you’re serving on your own and you fall down, who’s going to pick you up? When we serve together and one person falls down, the other people just pick him up. Doesn’t that make a simple but profound point? We need to work with other people to encourage each other and minimize our failures.

Even so, it’s hard to carry on a civil discourse when you’re accused of being a homophobe engaging in hate speech. What’s more, some LGBT supporters express such hostility toward Christians that they won’t listen to a biblical approach to the issue, no matter how faithfully and lovingly delivered.

Christians can err on both sides of the equation when sharing the Gospel or other things the Bible teaches—either not being forthright enough or being offensive in the way they share the truth. Greg cautions, “The Gospel is offensive enough. Don’t add any more offense to it. But we dare not remove the offense inherent to the Gospel.” Peter tells us to give an answer with gentleness and respect. Paul tells us that the cross will offend, and so will other teachings of Jesus. His teachings made a lot of people mad during His time on earth, and his disciples were often met with the same reaction when they passed on His teachings.

As a proud father of two young girls, I understand that I have the responsibility to train up my children in the Lord [Proverbs 22:6].
Here are some things that I have found helpful in carrying out that incredibly important task.
1. Family Devotions/Worship Time
It is my conviction that families should try to have a scheduled time each day to sit down, read and discuss the scriptures, and to pray and praise the Lord. This will look different for each family. In our house, we do catechism questions 1 with the girls during dessert. Before bed we read an account from the scriptures or learn about one of God's attributes. 2 Lastly, we end our devotional time praying for others. Further, I sometimes lead the family in praise on my guitar.
2. Stop sharing "stories" with your kids
In my house we don't read Bible "stories." We read Bible accounts. I want to convey to my children that there are good reasons to believe that the events recorded in the Bible actually happened in space and time. The Bible is not full of "stories" in the same way Cinderella is a "story," but gives an accurate account of history.

I urge you to set aside 45 minutes to watch Rachael Denhollander's victim-impact statement in its entirety--from her heartbreaking story to her offer of the gospel and of forgiveness to the judge's commendation to the standing ovation. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wehpkiflXMs …

When I talk with other Christians about this notion of becoming a “Responsive Christian”, they sometimes worry that I am suggesting a fragile and meek form of Christianity that is timid and tentative; a form of the faith that is patiently waiting to respond, but afraid to make the first move. This is not what Peter is advocating. As a boy, I remember watching the fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. I was a huge boxing fan at the time, and, like everyone else, I had been watching Foreman come up through the ranks, including his dismantling of Joe Frazier on his way to the fight with Ali. Foreman was a scary guy. He was a brutal puncher. He had a bad attitude. I was worried for Ali. In the first rounds of their fight, Foreman threw everything he had at Muhammad Ali. Hundreds of punches. Ali did something very unusual, however; he simply stayed on the ropes and let Foreman throw his punches. He took everything Foreman could offer for several rounds, until Foreman was exhausted. Then, Ali became the consummate counter puncher through the middle of the fight. In the late rounds of the fight, Ali eventually came off the ropes and became the aggressor, delivering a few concise, targeted punches that dropped an exhausted George Foreman to the canvas.

The Ortlund house wasn’t perfect, though it can seem that way. (Ray’s four children have all grown up to be thoughtful, serious, fairly high-profile followers of Jesus.) Ray struggled through two difficult church situations before planting his own at the age of 58. Unreconciled relationships still ache. But in spite of that—or maybe because of it—his calm encouragement of and gentleness with other church planters has been enormously important.

Step one in apologetics is to understand someone’s position. Many skip this step and merely vomit rehearsed arguments as soon as they hear a trigger word like “evolution” or “unreliable”. We like to give textbook answers, but people don’t hold textbook beliefs. Answers are only meaningful when given to relevant questions. So you must know the beliefs of the person across from you as they hold them before you start quoting J. Warner Wallace, Frank Turek, or Ravi. And you will only know their beliefs by listening.

I am really thankful for all the encouragement about the release of “The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down” today. I hope it will encourage Christians to pray. #LordsPrayerRevolution http://bit.ly/2DdK2im pic.twitter.com/ng0ntLdA6Z

In an effort to provide evidence for the historical Jesus, many apologists rightly go for extra-biblical sources to make their case. However, it’s also very easy to overstate the evidence. Personally, I think there are some really good extra-biblical references to Jesus (like Josephus and Tacitus), but I also think there are some questionable ones too!

Christians are often accused of taking a “blind leap into the dark.” However, my father Josh set out to disprove the Christian faith historically, but instead found the evidence powerful and convincing. So, when he became a Christian, it wasn’t a blind leap into the dark, but a knowledgeable step into the light. He placed the evidence onto the scales, and in his estimation, it tipped in favor of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, resurrected from the dead. You may be convinced by the evidence. On the other hand, you may find it wanting. But the claim that “faith is blind” simply ignores the biblical and historical evidence. In fact, only someone who hasn’t truly weighed the evidence could make such a claim. If you haven’t considered the evidence yet, maybe now is the time.

And not only the constants can change from one universe to another, the locations of particles relative to each other can also be different. Since there are infinitely many universes in which to arrange the particles, some of these universes will be very similar to our own, just that eventually some initially tiny deviation will lead to an alternative history. Thus, somewhere in the multiverse our lives play out in any which way you can imagine. In this case, in some other universe, Newton could have, indeed, invented the multiverse. But before you pack your bags and search for a universe more to your liking, let me add there's no way to cross over into another universe or even interact with one. This only works in science fiction. Indeed, to my taste, the multiverse itself is already too close to fiction.

In a 50-49 vote, the Senate confirms Sam Brownback as America’s next ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2018/january/sam-brownback-is-ambassador-international-religious-freedom.html …

The Apostle Paul’s main argument as summarized in Romans 9:6–7 still stands: “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.” The Word of God has not failed. So it is with preaching and hearing inside the church. When preachers preach the gospel, some audiences will not believe what they hear. Even if preachers clearly communicate the gospel to their hearers, some will refuse to receive it in faith. Preachers, therefore, should not become frustrated or discouraged. It is not that the gospel message failed to convert the hearers. But God, who bestows hyper-hearing as He wishes, has magnified Himself even in their unbelief. Christ is both the subject and object of preaching. Therefore, the church ought to worship Christ in the Scriptures preached—and heard.

“We must learn how to fight back and attack the lies that the enemy throws at us.” - Alli Worthington
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The Apostle Paul’s main argument as summarized in Romans 9:6–7 still stands: “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.” The Word of God has not failed. So it is with preaching and hearing inside the church. When preachers preach the gospel, some audiences will not believe what they hear. Even if preachers clearly communicate the gospel to their hearers, some will refuse to receive it in faith. Preachers, therefore, should not become frustrated or discouraged. It is not that the gospel message failed to convert the hearers. But God, who bestows hyper-hearing as He wishes, has magnified Himself even in their unbelief. Christ is both the subject and object of preaching. Therefore, the church ought to worship Christ in the Scriptures preached—and heard.